Silver prices surged to a five-month high on Monday, silver-mining stocks leapt and coin-selling websites were swamped as small-time investors piled in to the metal, the latest focus of a retail-trading frenzy that has set financial markets on edge. Silver has become the latest asset to surge after the GameStop frenzy, when Redditors drove up the share price that big fund managers had bet against. – Guardian
The chief executives of American oil companies ExxonMobil and Chevron held preliminary talks in early 2020 to explore combining the two largest US oil producers in what would have been the biggest merger of all time, according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions, which are no longer ongoing, are being seen as having tested the waters for the huge corporate marriage after the coronavirus pandemic shook the world last year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. – Guardian
A row between Heathrow and Britain’s aviation regulator is set to reignite this week over the airport’s demand to hike charges levied on airlines and passengers by £1.7bn. The Civil Aviation Authority is expected to rubber-stamp its rejection in October of the price increase, which Heathrow has said it is entitled to charge for losses suffered during the pandemic. – Telegraph
The sale of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia empire could leave the taxpayer and the pensions lifeboat with a bill for hundreds of millions of pounds, experts have warned. Arcadia’s pension fund has a deficit of about £300 million, some of which will be covered as the individual chains are sold off. However, experts said that the Pension Protection Fund could be left with a £200 million hit after the various deals are done. – The Times
The Bank of England will set out whether it thinks negative interest rates should be part of its armoury when it makes its latest monetary policy decision on Thursday. Although the bank is expected to keep policy unchanged, its latest report will include evidence collected from commercial banks about whether negative interest rates are operationally feasible in Britain. – The Times
